Surgical gowns have been used in the medical community to protect health care professionals from liquids and micro-organisms during surgical and other procedures. Single use surgical gowns are typically made of a non-woven, disposable fabrics. Such gowns typically include a single body panel or a front panel, a pair of back panels which are connected to the sides of the front panel and extend away from the front panel, and a pair of sleeves which are provided at the juncture of the front and side panels. The front panel covers the front of the health care professional during the procedure. The back panels are secured around and overlap each other to cover the rear of the health care professional by a tying structure. Typical surgical gowns will include two outer ties and two inner ties. The inner ties are utilized to secure the inside back of the gown. The outer ties are used to ensure that the back of the gown overlaps around the rear of the health care professional.
The outer tie includes a short length tie which is typically secured on the front left side of the gown. The outer tie further includes a longer length tie that is attached to the back of the gown. When used, the longer tie is wrapped around the back of the gown and tied to the shorter front tie.
While such ties do secure the gown around the health care personnel, such arrangements have several drawbacks. The health care professional wearing the gown is typically assisted by a health care assistant to maintain the sterility of the gown. The health care assistant grasps the long tie, walks the long tie around the health care professional, whereupon the health care professional would tie the long tie to the short tie. Securing the two ties together in a knotted relationship takes time and involves an awkward tying procedure. Additionally, once the gown is secured and the ties are knotted, it becomes time consuming and may compromise sterility when repositioning the ties to adjust the gown.
What would thus be advantageous would be a surgical gown having a fastener which could be easily fastened. The fastening system would further allow repositioning so that the gown could be adjusted. Such system would further provide these advantages in a low cost structure as the gowns upon which the fastening system will be used are typically disposable one time use garments.